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Previously

NATIONAL CITY  When a fire truck broke down a year ago at the State of the City speech in National City, Moynahan Towing was called in to haul it off.

The unusual situation caused a little stir, and a photo of the tow truck appeared in a blog at SignOnSanDiego.com.

Sharp-eyed veterans of the city’s towing contract competitions noticed something others might not have — the truck lacked a windshield sticker showing the California Highway Patrol had certified it for use.

The truck still lacks complete certification for towing, The Watchdog learned by checking with CHP offices in Otay Mesa and Mission Valley this week.

It’s one of two trucks in Moynahan Towing’s National City fleet that have only one of two levels of required approval from CHP to operate as tow trucks. They are the two largest trucks in the eight-vehicle fleet.

When submitting a bid for a new contract in July, owner Tom Moynahan included CHP inspection forms on both trucks — forms that he filled out. One had a notation saying no inspection was needed. The other was signed “OK” in the spot where a CHP officer’s signature is required.

Augie Bareno, a business consultant for Moynahan Towing, explained: “We were just indicating that the truck was part of our fleet to satisfy the contract. His forms were indicating that the trucks were OK as far as he was concerned.”

The Watchdog reported earlier this week about two other trucks for which Moynahan submitted forms with his OK instead of a CHP officer’s. Moynahan said the records were pre-inspection sheets he filled out. In those two cases, the CHP later certified the trucks.

The difference with the larger vehicles, certification has yet to be granted.

When the city put its police towing contract out to bid this year, the request for proposals stated that all tow trucks were required to meet CHP standards and “proof of certification by CHP must be submitted with the proposal.”

According to CHP documents, two levels of approval are required for tow trucks. Level 1 considers general commercial vehicle safety, such as tire tread, lights, suspension and brakes. Level 2 is specific to tow trucks, with an inspection of such items as safety straps, chains and winch capacity.

According to CHP, Moynahan's two larger trucks have received only Level 1 certification.

Other companies that bid on the National City contract — and lost — submitted inspection forms, filled out by the CHP, indicating they passed both levels to get certified.

Assistant City Manager Leslie Deese said the single level of commercial certification is adequate.

“We are not aware of any reason that the Level 1 would not meet the city’s requirements,” she said. “We didn’t differentiate between the levels.”

Bareno, the Moynahan consultant, said, “Look, the bottom line is this: The city is the client and they’re happy. Nobody’s lying and nobody’s trying to hide anything.”

The CHP and National City Police Department said they are taking no investigative action regarding the forms submitted to the city with “OK” scrawled on the officer signature line.

“Him writing ‘OK’ is not the same as actually printing an officer’s name and ID number,” Lopez said. “I’m not sure this will warrant an investigation by the CHP. We’ll have to look into the matter a little more closely until National City provides some type of response to it.”

Competition for towing business in National City is intense. The city has two approved contractors for the police department, which orders about 1,500 tows per year. When summoned by police, the companies collect $160 per basic tow, $225 for large vehicle towing and up to $40 a day in storage fees, among other charges adopted in the fee schedule.